Welcome To Tom’s Column!

There are so many ‘good’ strategy games relating to WW2 but those that aim for realism or authenticity tend to be IGOUGO (definitions at the bottom of the article*). This frustrates me somewhat because many of the famous battles we fight, or campaigns we lead, were intrinsically linked to operational initiative and a manoeuvrist approach, especially during WW2. 

Having one side assault the other side during an IGOUGO turn phase, whilst excellent for board games where players need to record results is, in my humble opinion, antiquated given today’s technology and computing power. It stifles ‘surprise’ and limits ‘initiative’ which are key ingredients for any would-be commander.

Almost all RTS games on the other hand, except a few such as the Combat Mission series or Command Ops 2 are often ‘arcade’ style with realism replaced by balance, perhaps most likely to appeal to a wider online community and thus increase sales. Steel Division and Company of Heroes series are examples where ‘realism’ is sacrificed for fun.

I guess this potentially ‘unpopular opinion’ also taps into the question of ‘why does a person play a strategy game’? – Is it for pure fun where you and your friends can battle it out on multiplayer, is it to test one’s mental ability where you must learn the absolute meta and rules, or is it to learn and develop. All are valid reasons but I do pray to the PC gaming Gods for more WEGO games.

If anyone has any thoughts, recommendations and/or passionate opinions please feel free to drop them in the comments below! 

On that note, if you are reading this and haven’t already, please check out Command Ops 2 on Steam. It’s one of my favourite WW2 strategy games and you can play 3 scenarios for free. For me, at the operational level, it strikes a very good balance between being fun, and plausibly realistic and gives the player enough freedom to experiment and learn. It is, of course, RTS/WEGO with orders delays and many of the challenges a commander would have issuing orders…

*Definitions: 

IGOUGO – I go, you go. This format means the player takes a turn and the AI or opponent then takes their turn afterwards and the cycle repeats itself. Chess is the classic example of this format and for that PC enthusiast Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2 is another example.

WEGO – We go. As it says on the tin, this format allows players to take their turn at the same time. Often each player plots their moves in secret and when every player has completed their orders they get actioned at the same time. An excellent example of this format is Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm; or rock, paper scissors if you don’t play video games.

RTS – Real Time Strategy. This format is where each player plays in, you guessed it, real-time. Command Operations 2 models this very well on PC and for the alternative, I’d suggest a Red Teaming exercise (more on that another time). 

Manoeuvrist approach – This is where a commander/general will seek to out-think and also outmanoeuvre the enemy. Likely by targeting critical points such as weaknesses rather than attacking head-on. As Sun Tzu said, “In war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak”. For context, Russia is not applying this approach in Ukraine.

Initiative – Being able to dictate the battlefield by having the enemy respond to your actions and will, rather than their own.

Read Tom’s first article too!

Ever wanted to test your command against Napoleon, Rommel or maybe even Valery Gerasimov?

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